New bus gates on Bachelors Walk and Aston Quay

I remember the congestion and pollution from the 1960s.

These same problems have festered for 60 years and here we are in 2024 with democracy being overturned by Mr Shakespeare and Fine Gael in favour of bowing to the grubby interests of some car park owners.

Capital City my arse - it's a Capital Kip.

As long as there is a disabled bay - a disabled driver or passenger (blue badge holder) can park in it for as long as they like. The blue badge holder can also park in any parking bay disabled or not.

But the curtesy is not to park in a disabled bay if possible as some disabled drivers require the larger space as wheelchair users. Whereas the disabled driver who is ambulatory without a wheelchair needs less space. Also the curtesy is not to park in the bays for a prolonged period (if possible) even if you are entitled to.

Disabled drivers (blue badge holders) are currently not entitled to drive down bus lanes as per the rules for all other drivers.

Anyone that has a blue badge has to renew it every two years, if it expires it is technically no longer valid for use.

I assume the problem with the bus gate is that there is a fair bit of disabled parking bays along the quays etc, which would become inaccessible for blue badge holders, because of the bus gates.

It is not really a question of being unwilling to change. The disabled bays by their very nature are a method of providing accessibility, and ease of accessibility to areas of the city. A disabled bay just 2km away from where a person wants to go might be too far for an individual in question, for example. Rendering it pointless.

Below is a map of the DCC parking spaces in Dublin -

https://data.smartdublin.ie/dataset/accessible-parking-spaces-dcc/resource/efb5d349-8640-42f5-8496-d29cc718ed6d?inner_span=True

Around the area at issue there is particular high demand, and in general there have been many former disabled parking bays that have been lost to the bicycle scheme that would have been there in the past.

Obviously disabled parking has to be near be central amenities, shopping etc, for those working and for ease of access in the city centre. Think of it like a "Shannon stop over" a point from where person can "disembark" for easy access to an area.

The problem is a lot of disabled parking is unevenly spread throughout the city. There are some parts such as near Dublin City Council/Fishamble street where there are a lot of disabled parking bays, and others where there might be a single bay (Abbey Street Lower) or others that you have to know is there as it is hidden away down some more obscure side street.

Then you have practical issues such as is the bay on flat ground, is it on a hill etc? For those who use Wheelchairs.

As I said in my previous post if a blue badge holder is able to they can park anywhere with the blue badge whether it is a disabled bay or not. However, invariably it is likely that the disabled bays are only available, if at all.

It's starting to look like a sit in protest blocking the left turn on onto OCS is the only solution, since Shakespear is determined to do a solo run on this, it'll have to be met with people power. Sad that this has to be done.

This is probably the best report they could have produced - something unfounded in facts. Hopefully Mr. Shakespeare disregards the report but I won't hold my breathe.

Based on the noises he has made, it appears he's a cronie, the quality of the report is irrelevant. We'll need Dublin cycling campaign / commuter coalition to go into the trenches over this.

If they want to live in unwalkable sh1tholes with no centre, I'm cool with it. The centre of Tallaght needs that SDCC money anyway.